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PRIMARY DAYS AND ELEC¬ 
TION DAYS AS HOLIDAYS 


AN INSTANCE OF GOVERNMENTAL ABSURDITY 
AND WASTE 


REPORT PREPARED BY THE 
CHICAGO BUREAU OF PUBLIC EFFICIENCY 
315 PLYMOUTH COURT 


TfO °\tO 

>Cs 


CHICAGO BUREAU 

OF 

PUBLIC EFFICIENCY 


TRUSTEES 


Julius Rosenwald, Chairman 
Alfred L. Baker, Treasurer 


Onward Bates 
George G. Tunell 
Walter L. Fisher 


Victor Elting 
Allen B. Pond 
Frank I. Moulton 


Harris S. Keeler, Director 

D. of D. 

NOV 18 1917 





PRIMARY DAYS AND ELECTION DAYS 
AS HOLIDAYS 


On Tuesday, November 6, an election will be held in 
Cook County for judges of the Superior and Circuit 
Courts. No other officials are to be chosen at that time. 
Nor is the election state-wide in nature. It is local to 
this community. Owing to various conditions, a light 
vote is anticipated. 

Yet the day will be observed as a holiday by a large 
proportion of the public officials and public employes, 
and by the banks, the Board of Trade, and the Stock Ex¬ 
change. Citizens desiring to do business at the City 
Hall or the County Building will find most of the of¬ 
fices closed. The offices of the Sanitary District also will be 
closed. It is the same at every primary and every election. 
On the other hand—save for the allowance to employes of 
time off in which to vote—other business goes on as usual 
except that of banks, the Board of Trade, and the Stock 
Exchange, which feel compelled to close on such days, al¬ 
though otherwise they are observed as legal holidays only 
by public officials and public employes. 

The practice of treating all primary days and election 
days as holidays is absurd—and worse. There is no 
reason why public employes should be allowed more holi¬ 
days than ordinary citizens. The practice is wasteful of 
taxpayers’ money. It is a needless inconvenience and ex¬ 
pense to business. It is demoralizing politically, in that 


4 Chicago Bureau of Public Efficiency 

it operates to place at the disposal of party leaders in 
control of public offices the services of political workers 
paid by the public. 

ORIGIN OF THE ABSURD PRACTICE 

Treating election days as holidays for public employes 
dates back to the time before the introduction of the merit 
system, when more than now public employes were looked 
upon primarily as groups of political workers. The poli¬ 
ticians had election days made holidays by law, involv¬ 
ing as a consequence the closing of banks on such days, 
in order to give an excuse for closing public offices and 
leaving public officials and employes free for political 
work. The effect is to place ordinary citizens at a great 
disadvantage in political contests with entrenched politi¬ 
cal leaders who can thus command on election days the 
services of groups of workers paid by the public. With 
the growth of the merit system the political abuses have 
diminished. For genuine civil service employes, a holiday 
on a primary day or an election day is merely a day of 
idleness, whereas for the spoils appointees, the number 
of which is still comparatively large in this community, 
such days are occasions for active political work. 

The original purpose back of the idea of treating elec¬ 
tion days as holidays was sinister, inasmuch as there was 
no intention of making such days holidays for all. The 
prime aim was to release for political work the groups of 
employes paid by the public. In so far as the progress 
of the civil service system has operated to frustrate that 
purpose, it should be easier to bring about the abolition of 
the practice of treating primary days and election days 
as holidays for public employes. The spirit of the civil 
service system calls for such a move. 


Election Days as Holidays 


5 


PUBLIC OFFICES NEED NOT CLOSE ON HOLIDAYS 

The practice of closing public offices on primary days 
and election days, whether or not such days are recog¬ 
nized as holidays by statute, should be abandoned. There 
is no requirement that public offices or the courts shall 
close on such days. Action of the Legislature in declar¬ 
ing a day a legal holiday does not necessitate the closing 
of public offices. The City Council, the Board of County 
Commissioners, and the Board of Sanitary District 
Trustees could order offices kept open as usual on pri¬ 
mary days and election days. Every legal and reasonable 
requirement would be met by allowing each employe two 
hours off in which to vote. The judges of the courts could 
keep the judicial machinery in operation as usual. 

The statutes declaring what days shall be recognized as 
holidays provide merely that “as regards the presenting 
for payment or acceptance, the maturity and protesting 
and giving notice of the dishonor of bills of exchange, 
bank checks and promissory notes and other negotiable 
or commercial paper or instruments 9 ’ such days shall be 
treated and considered “as is the first day of the week, 
commonly called Sunday.” That is, notes, bills, drafts, 
checks or other evidences of indebtedness falling due or 
maturing on a holiday are deemed as due or maturing on 
the following day. In legal effect that is as far as the 
statutes go and is all that they mean. Banks, other places 
of business and public offices are not obliged to close 
on holidays. Even banks might keep open on such days, 
and some banks sometimes do. But so much confusion is 
likely to arise over the operation of the statutory provi¬ 
sions relating to the effect of holidays on negotiable in¬ 
struments that the banks of Chicago make it a practice 


6 Chicago Bureau of Public Efficiency 

to close on all statutory holidays. The Board of Trade 
and the Stock Exchange follow the practice of the banks 
in this matter. 

LACK OF UNIFORMITY N PRACTICE 

The Illinois law making primary and election days legal 
holidays is not state-wide. It is a provision of the cities’ 
elections act, effective only in municipalities which have 
adopted that act on a referendum vote. Such days are not 
observed as legal holidays by public offices and banks 
throughout the state. Some municipalities around Chi¬ 
cago—Evanston and Oak Park, for example—that are not 
under the cities’ elections law follow the practice of Chi¬ 
cago in this matter, though election days are not legal 
holidays in such places. 

Of course primary and election days should not be legal 
holidays anywhere, but it is especially absurd that a law 
of this nature should be applicable only to Chicago and 
the few other municipalities operating under the cities’ 
elections act. The present statute making election and 
primary days legal holidays should be repealed by the 
Illinois Legislature at its next regular session. The banks, 
the Board of Trade, the Stock Exchange, and persons 
doing business with these institutions would welcome such 
a change, as they regard legal holidays not observed gen¬ 
erally by the public as nuisances. 

Bepeal of the law is not necessary, however, to the 
abandonment of the practice of keeping public offices 
closed on primary and election days. In fact, some cities 
of the state that are under the cities’ elections act do not 
observe those days as holidays. For example, in Spring- 
field, Bloomington, and Danville, which have adopted this 
act, such days are not treated as holidays, banks and 


Election Days as Holidays 7 

public offices remaining open as usual for the transaction 
of business. 

So far as the local situation is concerned, there is 
considerable variation in practice. 

In the early days of the Municipal Court of Chicago, 
an election day or primary day was treated as any busi¬ 
ness day, and all branches of the court were open. In 
recent years, however, the tendency has been for the Mu¬ 
nicipal Court, as well as the other courts, to close on pri¬ 
mary days and election days and on other holidays. Oc¬ 
casionally some judge holds court, especially when there 
is an important case on trial. 

The public schools, which observe other legal holi¬ 
days, continue in session on primary days and election 
days. 

The practices of the different govering bodies in Chi¬ 
cago are as follows: 

City of Chicago 

All city departments in the City Hall, except the De¬ 
partments of Police and Fire, and one division of the 
Health Department, are closed on every election day and 
every primary day. The pumping stations, municipal 
shops, and the construction division of the Bureau of 
Engineering are operated as usual. The Bureau of Streets 
was not in operation on the last presidential election day 
but carries on its work as usual on other election days 
and primary days. Generally speaking, skilled laborers 
and common laborers, such as street cleaners, etc., who 
are paid on a per diem basis, continue at work, while em¬ 
ployes in the offices engaged on a monthly basis are given 
a holiday. 

The offices of the Board of Election Commissioners in 


8 Chicago Bureau of Public Efficiency 

the City Hall of course are open on all primary and 
election days. 

Cook County 

Offices in the County Building are closed on all election 
and primary days, except that the portion of the County 
Clerk’s office having to do with elections in Cook County 
outside of Chicago and Cicero is open on days of county¬ 
wide primaries or elections. Institutions such as the 
County Hospital are operated as usual. For some years 
it was the custom of the Recorder to keep open on pri¬ 
mary days, on the assumption that the law required it. 
At the last session of the Legislature a law was passed 
which not only clearly authorizes the Recorder to close 
on all primary and election days, hut might perhaps he 
interpreted to require him to do so. 

Sanitary District 

The offices of the Sanitary District are closed on elec¬ 
tion days and nearly always on primary days. The pump¬ 
ing stations and the electrical plant of course operate 
every day. 

West Chicago Park Commissioners 

The West Chicago Park Commissioners allow time for 
their employes to vote. As a rule, the offices are not 
closed for business. On the last national election day all 
offices were closed and no employes were at work. 

South Park Commissioners 

The South Park Commissioners on election and pri¬ 
mary days allow their employes time in which to vote. 
The offices are not closed. 


9 


Election Days as Holidays 

Lincoln Park Commissioners 

Office employes of the Lincoln Park Commissioners 
work on election and primary days from 9 A. M. to 1 
P. M., thns allowing them three hours in which to vote. 
Employes engaged outside of the offices work six hours 
straight from 7 A. M. to 1 P. M., thus permitting them two 
hours in which to vote, the normal working day being 
eight hours. 

FREQUENT HOLIDAYS A COSTLY NUISANCE 

There were six days in 1916 observed as holidays in 
public offices and the hanks in Chicago on account of pri¬ 
maries and elections; the number for 1917 is three; for 
1918 it will be four. Frequent holidays for public em¬ 
ployes are a nuisance. They are costly, both in waste 
of time of officials and employes paid by the public and 
in inconvenience to business. The approximate number 
of employes of the local governing bodies named and the 
amount expended for their services for the days they were 
idle in 1916 on account of primary days and election days 
(six in number) are shown in the following table: 

Approximate No. Approximate 



of Employes. 

Salaries. 

City of Chicago.... 

. . . . 2,500 

$85,000 

Cook County. 

.... 1,500 

45,000 

Sanitary District .. 

200 

6,500 # 



$136,500 


Approximate average per primary or election, $23,000. 
On this basis, the payments for the three days in 1917 
(one primary day and two election days) will be $69,000. 

*Figures are for five days only, as Sanitary District offices were not 
closed on city primary day in 1916. 







10 Chicago Bureau of Public Efficiency 

For 1918 (two election days and two primary days) the 
payments figured on the same basis will be $92,000. 

It may be argued that the amount of money paid to 
public employes for a day of idleness on account of a holi¬ 
day is not a correct measure of the waste resulting, be¬ 
cause in many public offices work not performed one day 
can be made up the next. Also, admittedly, there would 
be some loss from allowing employes time off in which 
to vote. However, the waste from frequent days of idle¬ 
ness must be serious. If holidays can be given fre¬ 
quently without impairment of efficiency, then the offices 
must be overmanned. 

The closing of public offices and of the banks on days 
not treated as holidays by the public is a serious in¬ 
convenience to the community. It is annoying and some¬ 
times seriously embarrassing to have the operations of 
public offices, the banks, and the Board of Trade sus¬ 
pended on such a day as a city primary day, which is 
not a legal holiday elsewhere, especially as that day 
comes in February, a short month having two other legal 
holidays—Lincoln’s birthday and Washington’s birthday. 
If it were possible to make a correct estimate of the actual 
money loss to business men on account of these holidays, 
the total would without doubt be much in excess of the 
figures given in the foregoing table. 

The courts of Cook County and the Municipal Court of 
Chicago are so far behind in their work that serious in¬ 
justice to litigants results. While some judges spend 
holidays in their chambers studying cases, many are idle 
on such days. It would help to expedite the business of 
the courts if primary days and election days were not 
treated as holidays. 

In these war times, when there is much work to be done 


11 


Election Bays as Holidays 

and fewer to perform the service, it is especially objec¬ 
tionable that public offices should be closed on primary 
and election days. 


RECOMMENDATIONS 

The Chicago Bureau of Public Efficiency recommends: 

1. That the Chicago City Council, the Board of County 
Commissioners, the Board of Sanitary District Trustees, 
the Municipal Court of Chicago, the courts of Cook 
County, by appropriate orders or resolutions, direct that 
the offices under their control be not closed in the future 
on account of primary days or election days. 

2. That the Genei^l Assembly of Illinois, at its next 
regular session, repeal the provision of the statute making 
primary and election days legal holidays in municipalities 
operating under the cities’ elections act, thus relieving 
banks, the Board of Trade, the Stock Exchange, and 
the community generally from the inconvenience and em¬ 
barrassment that result from the present situation. 





































































































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